1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive fuse inserting and attaching apparatus for collectively inserting and attaching, into a fuse box, a group of fuses to be used in a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, automotive fuses are inserted and attached into a fuse box attached to a wire harness assembly which is an electric wiring system of a vehicle.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an automotive fuse has a casing F1 which is made of thin, flat, and plate-like resin, a portion to be blown F2 incorporated in the casing F1, a head portion F3, a trunk F4, shoulder-like projections F5 which are formed at the lateral sides of the head portion F3 and which transversely project with respect to lateral sides F4a of the trunk F4, thus forming a flange F6, and two plate-like terminals F7 which are arranged side by side and which project downward. In the present invention, the automotive fuse refers to a fuse having the specific configuration above-mentioned. Such automotive fuses are to be inserted and attached into a known fuse box having a great number of deep grooves into which the casings F1 are to be fitted, the deep grooves being formed in a single row or a plurality of rows at spatial intervals.
An inserting and attaching apparatus for inserting and attaching such fuses into a fuse box, is disclosed, for example, by Japanese Patent Examined Publication No. 58-9533 or Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 3-20855.
The former automotive fuse inserting and attaching apparatus comprises: arranging means for aligning predetermined automotive fuses in such a form as to be inserted and attached within a fuse box; guide means for guiding a group of automotive fuses aligned by the arranging means to the fuse box disposed at a predetermined position; and inserting and attaching means for inserting and attaching the automotive fuses thus guided.
The fuse box is to be attached, as assembled in a wire harness assembly, to a vehicle. In an actual production process, a wire harness assembly, which has been assembled as incorporating the fuse box above-mentioned, connectors and the like, is set on a predetermined inspection drawing board. Then, the wire harness assembly is checked for wiring and the terminals of the connectors and fuse box are tested for electrical conduction. After completion of such inspection, automotive fuses are inserted and attached into the fuse box on the inspection drawing board.
As shown in FIG. 3, a fuse box HB on an inspection drawing board TB is limited in movement by a great number of wire harnesses YH connected to the fuse box HB. In addition to the fact that an area where the fuse box HB can be moved is limited, the wire harnesses YH included in a wire harness assembly YHA congregate in such a limited area. Further, it is required to dispose, in such a limited area, connector inspection members TC to which the fuse box HB and the connector terminals are to be connected at the time of inspection of electrical conduction. It is therefore very difficult to dispose a member for positioning and securing the fuse box HB within the area where the fuse box HB can be freely moved.
It has been difficult to apply an automotive fuse inserting and attaching apparatus as shown in Japanese Patent Examined Publication No. 58-9533 above-mentioned, to such a fuse box which cannot be positioned and secured. Accordingly, automotive fuses have been conventionally manually inserted and attached, as picked one by one with the fingers, into a fuse box. This lowers the working efficiency. Further, when inserting and attaching a combination of a variety of types of automotive fuses having the same shape and sizes but having different capacities, there readily occur errors that fuses having predetermined capacities are not properly inserted and attached into predetermined positions due to human factors.
On the other hand, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication 3-20855 discloses an automotive fuse inserting and attaching apparatus which comprises: a grooved member having a great number of grooves into which automotive fuses are respectively inserted and attached; and a comb-like member having a great number of projecting plates which are moved back and forth in the grooves. This apparatus is arranged such that the comb-like member is advanced to push out all the automotive fuses at the same time, causing the automotive fuses to be inserted into a fuse box. In this automotive fuse inserting and attaching apparatus, automotive fuses to be inserted into respective positions of a fuse box are housed, in the form of lamination layers, in guide grooves in a laminating and setting member, and groups of automotive fuses to be pushed in are successively supplied according to the reciprocating movement of the comb-like member.
In this automotive fuse inserting and attaching apparatus, however, a large-size and heavy laminating and setting member in which a great number of automotive fuses are housed, is integrally disposed with the apparatus. Accordingly, when manually inserting and attaching automotive fuses in the manner mentioned earlier, the apparatus is very difficult to handle.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an automotive fuse inserting and attaching apparatus with which automotive fuses can manually readily be inserted and attached, with high efficiency, into a fuse box assembled with wire harnesses.